Old player here, I stopped around 2000 and now I'm back playing magic in Arena. A lot has changed, trying to update myself a little and I arrived at this mono white deck angels, starting with Historic Ranked.
Thing is, as soon as I entered Tier 2 Platinum, I was beaten on a daily basis, mainly by blue control decks and by decks with a lot of removals. I decided to adapt to Explorer deck, imagining it would be easier, migrating to a Mardu deck to give full access to Archangel of Wrath's kicks.
With that I got to Platinum tier 1, but I couldn't go up from there. I thought a good alternative against decks with too many removals would be to include Sanctuary Warden. As against the blue controls, I included Banefire, thinking of a bomb that could not be nullified (assuming I survive until midgame).
Still, something's missing or maybe these changes weren't the best since I ended up going down from tier 1 to tier 3 of platinum.
I'd like to try the deck, but 4 cards are missing. What are they?
I'm not quite sure what you want the deck to do; how do you typically win games, and how do you envision winning the game against blue control decks? There's a well-established angel deck based around Collected Company and Kayla's Reconstruction, and from my limited understanding it wins that match by playing around counters/wraths when possible and forcing through haymakers until one sticks. Yours seems closer to the equally established BR midrange deck that wants to put one standalone threat in play at a time and poke away with backup from something like Mutavault or Thoughtseize while blood tokens and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker filter out duds. In each case, the "beatdown" deck wins if it can successfully dictate the pace of the game, either by going too fast or by forcing the control deck to waste turns.
I hope you're having fun with your return to Magic.
Edit: Steel Seraph is counting both as Artifact and Creature I think
The deck idea was based on angels because I have the impression that they are creatures with aggressive and protective abilities at the same time, which Archangel of Wrath seems to be a good synthesis for me.
The aggressive part is where I think I could beat some control decks, but I thought Banefire would be something of a late game deathblow against these types of decks as well. I've never tested cards like Thoughtseize, but they seem to me to run away from the aggressive idea. Maybe I'm wrong too.
I see a lot of different decks playing with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and I see how the Goblin token, despite being extraterrestrial in an Angels themed deck, provides good mana support. Maybe I should not be that purist lol
The transformed card's ability seems to be good for copying large creatures, but it could also help activate Righteous Valkyrie abilities.
This deck's dynamics and interactions are supposed to involve being aggressive while also gaining life and returning mid game some starting creatures from the graveyard to my hand with Serra Paragon. I saw that this made me more comfortable discarding white cards when using March of Otherworldly Light at the beginning of the game. Also Bishop of Wings and Resplendent Angel should help with tokens. When this were monowhite I've tried before 4x Speaker of the Heavens but ended up thinking it's too slow and uncertain.
Kayla's Reconstruction seems to go very well with this idea, it can put back to the battlefield the limited version of Steel Seraph. It's a good response to global removal spells and with mana enough it can be also huge to add Giada, Font of Hope before anything entering the battlefield with this.
Collected Company tend to be pretty much strong even in this sense. To be honest I've saw some Azorius Angels decks that I liked more to be honest, but now the wildcards with rare lands are already spent and I'm trying to see if Mardu can be a way in this meta :')
Thanks for explaining your choices, they're insightful. I wasn't recommending spells like Fable, just illustrating what similar decks use in the matchup. Also, while Paragon lets you cast Steel Seraph from the grave, Kayla's Reconstruction can't find it in your library; it's much better with Resplendent Angel. WG Angels is a strong deck if you choose to go that route.
I played some games against WU control, just to get a feel for things, and it's rough, for sure. We're essentially playing Gray Ogres and Hill Giants against them. That said, your version has some nice natural edges, with all 4 Inspiring Overseer and Steel Seraph bringing protection from The Wandering Emperor. Initially, I thought you were in between WG Angels and RB Midrange, and any changes would lead to morphing into those decks, but there are some simple ways to keep your core and still address matchups:
Win the die roll. Easy, right? Playing around Censor is no good when it means playing into Absorb.
I hate recommending rares, but Mutavault is really good against them. It makes sweepers, countermagic, and planeswalkers worse. Normally it improves threat density, but I recommend it over creatures. Anointed Peacekeeper and The Wandering Emperor are maindeckable alternatives to your current interaction, which may be great elsewhere (I only played against WU), but is useless here. Peacekeeper throws them off balance and attacks, while Emperor lets you play at flash speed while still being removal elsewhere. Youthful Valkyrie is next, a cheap play to enable your aggressive strategy. It isn't exceptional here, but it's an uncommon alternative to your weaker creatures. I wish there were more low-rarity alternatives, but something like Cathar Commando, while decent against control, doesn't work well against most anything else you'll face.
Indulgent Patrician, Starnheim Aspirant, and Sanctum Warden are your most replaceable creatures. Warden is expensive and you already have a long game. Patrician and Aspirant only help when your deck is already working unopposed. Play an Aspirant, fall way behind, then use it to maybe catch up seems like the way it normally goes. Legion Angel provides a long, long game, but many decks will ignore it.
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Old player here, I stopped around 2000 and now I'm back playing magic in Arena. A lot has changed, trying to update myself a little and I arrived at this mono white deck angels, starting with Historic Ranked.
Thing is, as soon as I entered Tier 2 Platinum, I was beaten on a daily basis, mainly by blue control decks and by decks with a lot of removals. I decided to adapt to Explorer deck, imagining it would be easier, migrating to a Mardu deck to give full access to Archangel of Wrath's kicks.
With that I got to Platinum tier 1, but I couldn't go up from there. I thought a good alternative against decks with too many removals would be to include Sanctuary Warden. As against the blue controls, I included Banefire, thinking of a bomb that could not be nullified (assuming I survive until midgame).
Still, something's missing or maybe these changes weren't the best since I ended up going down from tier 1 to tier 3 of platinum.
4 Giada, Font of Hope (SNC) 14
4 Inspiring Overseer (SNC) 18
4 Bishop of Wings (M20) 8
4 Archangel of Wrath (DMU) 3
4 Righteous Valkyrie (KHM) 24
2 Serra Paragon (DMU) 32
1 Sanctuary Warden (SNC) 30
4 March of Otherworldly Light (NEO) 28
3 Fateful Absence (MID) 18
SORCERY 01
1 Banefire (M19) 130
ARTIFACT 04
4 Steel Seraph (BRO) 38
LAND 21
6 Plains (M20) 261
4 Shattered Sanctum (VOW) 264
4 Caves of Koilos (DMU) 244
3 Sundown Pass (VOW) 266
4 Battlefield Forge (BRO) 257
So, I welcome suggestions on how to improve the deck
I'm not quite sure what you want the deck to do; how do you typically win games, and how do you envision winning the game against blue control decks? There's a well-established angel deck based around Collected Company and Kayla's Reconstruction, and from my limited understanding it wins that match by playing around counters/wraths when possible and forcing through haymakers until one sticks. Yours seems closer to the equally established BR midrange deck that wants to put one standalone threat in play at a time and poke away with backup from something like Mutavault or Thoughtseize while blood tokens and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker filter out duds. In each case, the "beatdown" deck wins if it can successfully dictate the pace of the game, either by going too fast or by forcing the control deck to waste turns.
I hope you're having fun with your return to Magic.
CREATURE 31
4 Giada, Font of Hope (SNC) 14
4 Inspiring Overseer (SNC) 18
4 Archangel of Wrath (DMU) 3
4 Righteous Valkyrie (KHM) 24
4 Bishop of Wings (M20) 8
2 Serra Paragon (DMU) 32
2 Starnheim Aspirant (KHM) 380
1 Resplendent Angel (M19) 34
1 Sanctuary Warden (SNC) 30
1 Indulging Patrician (M21) 219
4 March of Otherworldly Light (NEO) 28
3 Fateful Absence (MID) 18
SORCERY 1
1 Banefire (M19) 130
ARTIFACT 4
4 Steel Seraph (BRO) 38
LAND 21
6 Plains (M20) 261
4 Shattered Sanctum (VOW) 264
4 Caves of Koilos (DMU) 244
4 Battlefield Forge (BRO) 257
3 Sundown Pass (VOW) 266
Edit: Steel Seraph is counting both as Artifact and Creature I think
The deck idea was based on angels because I have the impression that they are creatures with aggressive and protective abilities at the same time, which Archangel of Wrath seems to be a good synthesis for me.
The aggressive part is where I think I could beat some control decks, but I thought Banefire would be something of a late game deathblow against these types of decks as well. I've never tested cards like Thoughtseize, but they seem to me to run away from the aggressive idea. Maybe I'm wrong too.
I see a lot of different decks playing with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and I see how the Goblin token, despite being extraterrestrial in an Angels themed deck, provides good mana support. Maybe I should not be that purist lol
The transformed card's ability seems to be good for copying large creatures, but it could also help activate Righteous Valkyrie abilities.
This deck's dynamics and interactions are supposed to involve being aggressive while also gaining life and returning mid game some starting creatures from the graveyard to my hand with Serra Paragon. I saw that this made me more comfortable discarding white cards when using March of Otherworldly Light at the beginning of the game. Also Bishop of Wings and Resplendent Angel should help with tokens. When this were monowhite I've tried before 4x Speaker of the Heavens but ended up thinking it's too slow and uncertain.
Kayla's Reconstruction seems to go very well with this idea, it can put back to the battlefield the limited version of Steel Seraph. It's a good response to global removal spells and with mana enough it can be also huge to add Giada, Font of Hope before anything entering the battlefield with this.
Collected Company tend to be pretty much strong even in this sense. To be honest I've saw some Azorius Angels decks that I liked more to be honest, but now the wildcards with rare lands are already spent and I'm trying to see if Mardu can be a way in this meta :')
I played some games against WU control, just to get a feel for things, and it's rough, for sure. We're essentially playing Gray Ogres and Hill Giants against them. That said, your version has some nice natural edges, with all 4 Inspiring Overseer and Steel Seraph bringing protection from The Wandering Emperor. Initially, I thought you were in between WG Angels and RB Midrange, and any changes would lead to morphing into those decks, but there are some simple ways to keep your core and still address matchups:
Win the die roll. Easy, right? Playing around Censor is no good when it means playing into Absorb.
I hate recommending rares, but Mutavault is really good against them. It makes sweepers, countermagic, and planeswalkers worse. Normally it improves threat density, but I recommend it over creatures.
Anointed Peacekeeper and The Wandering Emperor are maindeckable alternatives to your current interaction, which may be great elsewhere (I only played against WU), but is useless here. Peacekeeper throws them off balance and attacks, while Emperor lets you play at flash speed while still being removal elsewhere.
Youthful Valkyrie is next, a cheap play to enable your aggressive strategy. It isn't exceptional here, but it's an uncommon alternative to your weaker creatures. I wish there were more low-rarity alternatives, but something like Cathar Commando, while decent against control, doesn't work well against most anything else you'll face.
Indulgent Patrician, Starnheim Aspirant, and Sanctum Warden are your most replaceable creatures. Warden is expensive and you already have a long game. Patrician and Aspirant only help when your deck is already working unopposed. Play an Aspirant, fall way behind, then use it to maybe catch up seems like the way it normally goes.
Legion Angel provides a long, long game, but many decks will ignore it.